The Chainbearer; Or, The Littlepage Manuscripts

t graceful

ed hunter

ien and sha

l halls

e stately s

ere of h

nck

m had come over the country, after the struggles of the late war; but one interest in it appearing to be alive and very active. That interest, fortunately for me, appeared to be the business of "land-hunting" and "settling." Of this I had sufficient proof in Albany itself; it being difficult to

master in the neighborhood of Satanstoe. This agent had leased extensively himself, and was said to be the occupant of the only mills of any moment on the property. With him a correspondence had been maintained; and once or twice during the war my father had managed to have an interview with

the rudest sorts, and filled with brambles; buildings of the meanest character; deserted clearings; and all the other signs of a state of things in which there is a manifest and constant struggle between immediate necessity and future expediency, are not calculated to satisfy either the hopes or the tastes. Occasionally a different state of things, however, under circumstances peculiarly favorable, does exist; and it may be well to allude to it, lest the reader form but a single picture of this transition state of Amer

ter of a century earlier than this of mine. There was one log tavern, it is true, in the space mentioned; but it afforded nothing to drink but rum, and nothing to eat but salted pork and potatoes, the day I stopped there to dine. But th

ome among us in one of what I call our 'starving times'-and a

d, "though I did not know you were ever reduced to such

seen the day when there wasn't a mouthful to eat in this house, but a dozen or two of

have been a welcome ad

Give me the children that's raised on good sound pork, afore all the game in the country. Game's good as a relish, and so's bread; but pork is the staff of life! To have good pork, a body

eason; but the poor man who lived on game was supposed to be keeping just as poor an establishment as the epicure in town who gives a dinner to h

poor do not taste meat of any sort, not even game, from the b

the woman answered, evidently interested in what I had said; "but I shouldn't like to be without it altogether; and the c

do it, and that f

ag'in their usin

ch forbids their using that wh

on among the women-"Good land! Why don't they go to

no land to till. The lan

about as good to hire as it is to buy-some folks (folk) thin

ry, or than will be necessary, for ages to come; perhaps it would be better for our civilization wer

uld be an owner to it; yet there are folks who would rather sq

uatters in this pa

she did not answer me, until she had tak

f a man who hadn't much of a title, I think likely; but as we bought his betterments fairly, Mr. Tinkum"-that was t

whom you purchased owned nothing, he could sell nothing. The betterments he cal

e harness, that I'd defy a conjuror to make fit any mule, for the whull right. One year's rent of this house is worth all put together, and that tw

n, when the real owner of the soil appears to claim it.

aid suthin' for the betterments. They say an old nail, paid in due form, will make a sort of

on it, my good woman, the man who is forever preaching the rights of the poor is at bottom a rogue, and means to make that cry a stalking-horse for his own benefit; since nothing can serve the poor but severe j

rselves squatters. There is dreadful squatters abou

little comparative value, and the distance at which the owners generally reside from their estates, have united to render the people careless of the rights of those wh

the first class. They tell me the old chap has come back from the army as fierce as

old acquaintance

nd for the woods. He surveyed out for us, once, or half-surveyed, another betterment; but he proved to be a spi

an honest man! You are the first person, Mrs. Tinkum, I

had of it here, when you quit college; for some said old Herman Mordaunt had ordered in his will that you should uphold the king; and then, most of the tenants concluded they would get the lands alto

of the sort. But, let me hear an explanation of your charge against the Chain

ssed her regrets that I had not taken part with the crown in the last struggle; in which case, I do suppose, she and Tinkum wo

to him; as good and lawful warrantees as was ever printed and filled up by a 'squire. He then set to work, all by himself, jobbing the whull survey, as it might be, and a prettier line was never run, as far as he went, which was about half-way. I thought it would make etarnel peace atween us and our neighbor, for it had been etarnel war afore that, for three whull years; sometimes with clubs, and sometimes with axes, an

orious old Andries always is! I love

age could honor an old, worn-out chainbearer, and he a man that couldn't get up in the world, too, when he had hands and feet, all on 'em toget

and was once my superior officer; but he served for his co

l party, on their way to squat on your own land, or I'm mistaken. Th

at induced the woman to turn her keen, su

do, that the Chainbearer can't calkerlate any more than a wild goose, and not half as well as a crow. For that matter, I've know

he Chainbearer's nephew? And he

ndries's niece. I know'd the Coejemans when I was a gal, a

ind with the family, tha

themselves so much better than everybody else; yet, they te

y the source of their pride, at the very moment you deny their having any. Money is a thing on which few per

; but I was provoked; and when a man is provoked, he is no

ent from my da'ters? She'd no more think of being like one on 'em, scouring about the lots, riding bare-

's niece because the latter behaved differently from her and hers. How many persons in this good republic of ours judge their neighbors on precisely the same principle; inferring someth

n," I said, "does

head to call the gal Miss Malbone! There's no

I mean; she is above

hardly grand enough for her, allowin

s young surveyor, the

like. They had the same fat

of any nephew, and it seems the young man is not rela

to borrow an article over at the Nest, and that's seven miles off, the whull way in the woods, just name it to Poll, and she'd jump on an ox, if there warn't a

dries and his party to satisfy my curiosity, and Jaap was patiently waiting to succeed me at the table. Throwing down the amount of the bill, I took a fowling-piece, with which w

es, from one squatter to another. Around the house, by this time a decaying pile of logs, time had done a part of the work of the settler, and aided by that powerful servant but fearful master, fire, had given to the small clearing somewhat of the air of civilized cultivation. The moment these narrow limits were passed, however, the traveller entered the virgin forest, with no other sign of man around him than what was offered in the little worked and little travelled road. The highway was

e who knock over the woodcock, snipe, quail, grouse, and plover, on the wing. I was thought a good shot on the "plains," and over the heaths or commons of the Island of Manhattan, and among the rocks of Westchester; but I saw nothing to do up there, where I then was, surrounded by trees that had stood there centuries. It would certainly have been easy enough for me to kill a blue jay now and then, or a crow, or even a raven, or perhaps an eagle, had I the proper

a higher key, where it seemed equally at home. I thought I knew the air, but the words were guttural, and in an unknown tongue. French and Dutch were the only two foreign languages in which one usually heard any music in our part of the woods at that day; and even the first was by no means common. But with both these languages I had a little acquaintance, and I was soon satisfied that the words I heard belonged to neither. At length it flashed on

tely concealed all within them. So long as the song lasted, no tree of the forest was more stationary than myself; but when it ended, I was about to advance toward the thicket, in order to pry into its mysteries, when I heard a laugh that had scarcely less of melody in it than the strains of the music itself. It was not a vulgar, clamorous burst of girlish impulses, nor was

; yet he manifested no emotion as his cold, undisturbed glance fell on my form. Steadily advancing, he came to the centre of the road; and, as I had turned involuntarily to pursue my own way, not sure it wa

e to say anything, because I had heard that an Indian respected those most who knew best how to repress their curiosity; which habit, most probably, had i

-a-

nd, quite likely for English, with the Indian. A set of such terms has grown up between the two races, includi

red to my neighbor

would hold liquor. What I liked the least was the circumstance of his being completely armed; carrying knife, tomahawk, and rifle, and each seemingly excellent of its kind. He was not painted, however, and he wore an ordinary calico shirt, as was then the usual garb of his people in the warm season. The countenance had the stern severity that is so common to a red warrior; and, as this man was turned of fifty, his features began to show the usual signs of exposure and service. Still, he was a vigorous, respectable-looking red man, and one who was evidently

uddenly asked, without even r

you mean Washin

hief, out here, at

you know Gene

ee"-holding up his two forefinge

And were you told that I

o. Always tal

since you sa

ime-nebber hear o

been exceedingly useful, in the two great northern campaigns especially. He never happened to be with the regimen

"Certainly, have I heard of you, and something that is connected wit

war. Gin'ral young m

were you then

me one, sometime anoder. Pale-face say 'Trackless,' caus